St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-11-05

)
antrequented country lane, or acros
some neglected field, one of these spark
ing autumn mornings when the air i
charged with buoyant, invigorating prop
critics, making your blood tingle ant
your feet feel as though they weighed
less than feather-if, say, you tax,
such stroll, you will notice the grea
number of weeds holding aloft cluster.
OF ripe seeds. That is, you will notice il
if you walk not as some people do through
the country. with metaphorical blind.
alongside of your eyes like carriage
horse, seeing only in front of you and
not any more of that than is absolutely
necessary. The sky is overhead the
earth under foot, and when some free.
loving weed slaps your hand socially
as 1t swings past, you know some sort
OF vegetation is growing near you
that's ALL
Not glance at the aureous splendor
of the golden rod. Not nod of appro-
baton to the scarlet-tinged gum tree.
No manner of notice to the tall wild car
rot which tries to attract your attention
Nonchalanly brushing the blood-red
berries OF the sumac out of your path,
and oblivious of the grass on which YOU
trample-a blind man walking through
a museum. You may glance at the
black-haw, at the unripe hazelnut, and
at the cluster of fox grapes. No admira-
ton ID the ogre-like glance; it saws
plainly: II wish you were ripe; would
eat you" But Jack Frost has not vet
stamped them Ready for use," so, regret
tul as to your stomach, you pass on.
Maybe you are thinking of Lake
Shore and Western-why the stock
persistently runs on a down grade
just as you bought few hundred
shares. Maybe the ticklish con-
dltlon of short ribs in far Chicago
the fluffy uncertainty of the cotton mar
ket, or the undiluted strength of coffee,
absorb your faculties and blind your
eyes. Stop! What are you trampling
down? Grass, nothing but grass. You
know its use-makes hav. Come on.
Where will pork go if the corn crop =?
Hold on you can't toss grass aside in
that contemptuous manner One of the
most important productions of the earth.
Grass! what a comprehensive term
Fifteen hundred and more different
species of grass in the world. Grass so
small and delicate that it will bend be-
fore the keen edge of scythe. Grass
with stem one half inch in diameter and |
thirty to forty feet high. If you pluck
handful at random you will find half a
dozen sorts in your fist. Here is fox
tail, with heathery bunch at the top of
the stem from which it derives it's name.
Timothy, the dainty of the horse Glover,
alike priced by bee and beast a milk
producing, strengthening hay makes
clover. Hood grass, why, thin and dis
contented-looking. Crab grass, the most
and most ill-natured of the
family. A grasping, usurping race,
sometimes smothering its brethren in a
selfish, egotistical desire to grow; five
sorts on tiny bunch and some left for
which | have no name. All the grain
crops are blood relatives to the grass
family. All have hereditary faint of ;
alec on their system. All have culms
divided into lengths by joints, from the
sides of which alternately spring the
caves, each one wrapped around the ,
ITEM like a sheath-a robust, hearty ,,
'lant. The scythe cuts it, the COW crops
OIL, but its roots grow all the stronger
or this treatment. A social, company ,,
owing family Plant one species in
leld. When it comes up blank patches /
will appear-seats kept ready for some /
'ther species to occupy-and they will
urely avail themselves of the invita- I
ion; nothing monotonous about grass. {
The motto of the plants is increase !
nd multiply, and this is their busy sea- =
on. They are now ready to colonize-
o send out pioneers in every direction. \
low are the seeds disseminated? All! Q
ere comes the shrewdness of the de- =
pissed weed. They never pay cent of
assage money when they send their
hildren travelling. To use rather a vul- A
ar Americanism, "they beat their way"
GU are carrying few passengers now
n your pantaloons. A hundred or so o
parish needles are clinging to your fash :,
Enable neither garments. A few beggars' -
ce have been picked up en- route and :"
select party of burrs have been 4
lvited to join company. You have been u u
an emigrant ship with a $,
irgo of stowaways, for your freight will n
2 unremunerative. No use now to an gi
rily brush them off; their object is at {
lined. They have spread Pardon me, it
1T you remind me of dog l once d
wned. This animal had decided an o. !,
pathy to the common land terrapin. p
s that creature is defended by armor, F
, could not wreak his spite in any other in
amer than by selling it in his teeth til
I'd running at top speed until fatigued. la
have wondered what the terrapin "
ought of this lightning express train. o!
erhaps he liked the pace or maybe, if
} intended going in an opposite direc-
IN, he was mad Of
Nature has provided plants with the ba
cans of colonizing their seeds. Some ca
eds are prickly and attach themselves b
a passing object-a man, dog or st:
are thus distributed. Others OF
e waited by the wind, like the seed of -, ~
e dandelion, sailing through space like st5
tiny balloon, or like the seeds of the br
lip tree or poplar, flying from the